BOOKKEEPER SENTENCED TO FEDERAL PRISON FOR EMBEZZLEMENT SCHEME

ASHEVILLE, N.C. – A former bookkeeper from Topton, N.C., was sentenced late last month to 57 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for orchestrating an embezzlement scheme that stole $1 million from three businesses, announced Russ Ferguson, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. Jeraldine Agnes Geldner, 73, was also ordered to pay $1,131,293.94 in restitution. She previously pleaded guilty to wire fraud and filing a false tax return.

Donald “Trey” Eakins, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation, Charlotte Field Office (IRS-CI), and Sheriff Chuck Owenby of the Transylvania County Sheriff’s Office join U.S. Attorney Ferguson in making the announcement.

According to court records and the sentencing hearing, Geldner worked as a contracted bookkeeper for three small businesses. As part of her duties, Geldner was responsible for handling the businesses’ accounts payable, payroll, and filing of tax returns. From 2019 through 2024, Geldner engaged in a scheme to defraud and embezzle from the businesses, by making unauthorized wire transfers from the companies’ bank accounts to her own personal bank accounts. To conceal the fraud, Geldner created phony vendors and falsified accounting entries in the victim companies’ ledgers. The scheme resulted in a total loss of $975,670.94. Geldner used much of the stolen money to gamble at casinos.

According to filed court documents in addition to the embezzlement scheme, Geldner filed false tax returns for tax years 2019 through 2022, that grossly underrepresented the income she received from the embezzlement scheme. The total estimated tax due and owing relative to the unreported income was approximately $155,623.

Geldner will be ordered to report to the Federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility.

The IRS-CI and the Transylvania County Sheriff’s Office investigated the case with the assistance of the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Asheville handled the prosecution.